A document granting certain concessions, especially leave, to a prisoner or convict who had served part of their time.
〈英，史〉（囚犯的）假释许可证
as modifierticket-of-leave men
Example sentencesExamples
After 19 years on the chain gang, Jean Valjean finds that the ticket-of-leave he must display condemns him to be an outcast.
There were only just over three hundred probation and re-convicted men left for whom employment had to be found for the next few years until they got their ticket of leave.
Conservative critics bemoaned the pernicious consequences of softhearted penal policies and demanded stricter control of ticket-of-leave men.
Once freed, ex-cons were expected to check in their ticket of leave at the tradesman's entrance and work for their betters.
The ticket of leave was initially a device to reduce the number of convicts on the store.